The guides used for imparting such a path on the door thus include a curved end portion directed towards the side of the vehicle bodywork (supposing that said fixed structure is constituted by a vehicle body). Wheels associated with the door and co-operating with said guides must therefore be provided with a certain degree of freedom relative to the guides in order to be capable of running therealong without excessive friction or other drawbacks in the curved portions. Such wheels are therefore provided with floating or oscillating mounts on the moving door panel, thereby providing a connection between the door panel and the structure via said guides and wheels which is not very rigid. As a result the door may vibrate, thereby giving rise to wear and to noise.
The present invention seeks to provide a solution to guiding a swinging-sliding panel whereby the panel is firmly held to the stucture over its entire path relative to the structure, and whereby the same quality of swinging motion can be obtained for a wrap-over door panel, i.e. a panel having a top portion that curves over to lie generally horizontally, e.g. flush with the roof or top of the vehicle body in addition to a generally vertical portion which comes generally flush with the side of the vehicle body when the door is closed. Wrap-over doors of this type move into their closure position with a complex motion having two perpendicular horizontal components and a vertical component in order to bring the above-mentioned top portion of the door down into the same general plane as the roof of the vehicle bodywork.